Five on one day is my max. Hats off to you guys. Based on what you all are saying I'd better toughen up. I want to reach a point that I go thru 100 hives a day. I don't mind stings to most places other than my fingers and my head (ears, nose, around eyes). The ones on my fingers makes it harder to continue due to swelling. I've considered purposely getting two or three stings each day to help reduce my reactions.

ray, i've taken two below the eye this year and a few on the top of my head. i don't even notice stings to my fingers that's probably where i get the least reaction. it's the soft places that hurt. i also believe that bee stings are good for arthritis so i usually try to get stung a few times every couple of days.

If you keep bees you will get stung...no way around it. If you keep bees commercially you will get stung often...it's just part of the job.

Scott

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About 60 is the most I have been stung at one time. Only thing that is bad for me was it was all on the hands and they swelled enough that if I wasn't thinking and went to scratch then it would just rip open because the skin was so tight.

About 60 is the most I have been stung at one time. Only thing that is bad for me was it was all on the hands and they swelled enough that if I wasn't thinking and went to scratch then it would just rip open because the skin was so tight.

wow! apparently i'm physiologically set up to take the venom. my hands almost never swell no matter how many stings they take. even the one on my lower eyelid didn't have much swelling and it took me a while to get to a mirror to remove the stinger.

About 60 is the most I have been stung at one time. Only thing that is bad for me was it was all on the hands and they swelled enough that if I wasn't thinking and went to scratch then it would just rip open because the skin was so tight.

wow! apparently i'm physiologically set up to take the venom. my hands almost never swell no matter how many stings they take. even the one on my lower eyelid didn't have much swelling and it took me a while to get to a mirror to remove the stinger.

i've been hit there twice already this year. taking one in the eye is the only thing that scares me (maybe taking one to the nads is a close second) and it felt like somebody had punched me about 4 or 5 hours later but i didn't swell much and it was down by the next morning. i've been hit in the lip and that's not a fun place either. it's like scott said, you will get stung and the more you handle bees the more you get stung and that just leads to more places to be stung. it's funny that i was bragging about no reaction when i get stung in the fingers today. i mashed one this evening that got me right on the pad of a finger and it's not swollen but it's tender as all get out when i type with it.

I got nailed under the eye last year about a week after I got my bees. I wasn't even working the hives. I was standing about 25 feet in front and to the side. Suddenly I heard an angry buzzing and felt a slight burning sensation. The stinger stayed in for about 5 minutes, till I got back to the house and to a mirror so I could see what I was scrapping out.

I got nailed under the eye last year about a week after I got my bees. I wasn't even working the hives. I was standing about 25 feet in front and to the side. Suddenly I heard an angry buzzing and felt a slight burning sensation. The stinger stayed in for about 5 minutes, till I got back to the house and to a mirror so I could see what I was scrapping out.

Tiger,Were you in the hives before this happened? Like the week before. When you are in your hives, be as gentle as possible. If you were heavy leather gloves you will probably kill or hurt a lot of bees. The blue rubber gloves allow you to feel the bees under your fingers but the bees have a hard time stinging through them. The bees around the bees that get hurt remember you and continue to defend the hive. I have had hives that were nice as can be but the second a bee got crushed, someone got stung. Usually it was my buddy. He was wearing a suit and I was not. JimJim

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around 10 from honeybees. there have been days when I p.o. a hive s few would stalk me the rest of the day, sometimes 2 days. like tiger I had one nail on the eye lid. the most stings came from yellow jackets. I mowed over a ground nest. turned off the mower & ran. may have set an unofficial 100 yd dash record that day ( I was 17 ) we quit counting at 250.

Wow, as a new beekeeper this is something I didn't want to read. I have a suit, gloves and veil. For sure now I will never work bees without them. I watch beekeepers in videos handling bees in shorts, no gloves, no veil. I can't imagine being stung so many times at once especially in the face near the eyes. As a kid I can remember stepping barefoot into yellow jacket nests in the ground at least 2x a summer and screaming while running all the way home. That was hell as a kid. But even as a grown up kid now getting stung like that, Eeeek!!

Wow, as a new beekeeper this is something I didn't want to read. I have a suit, gloves and veil. For sure now I will never work bees without them. I watch beekeepers in videos handling bees in shorts, no gloves, no veil. I can't imagine being stung so many times at once especially in the face near the eyes. As a kid I can remember stepping barefoot into yellow jacket nests in the ground at least 2x a summer and screaming while running all the way home. That was hell as a kid. But even as a grown up kid now getting stung like that, Eeeek!!

There is one video, on the internet, that the beekeeper works the hive totally naked. He is standing behind the hive. Jim

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Beekeeping for me is a hobby. If I were taking stings at those rates I wouldn't stay a beekeeper. Say what you will, but that is how I roll. :mrgreen:

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